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Hobbes, Thomas
Hobbes, Thomas Born Apr. 5, 1588, in Malmesbury; died Dec. 4, 1679, in Hardwick. English materialist philosopher. Hobbes was the son of a vicar. He graduated from Oxford in 1608 and became a tutor in thearistocratic family of W. Cavendish, later earl of Devonshire, with which he remained associated tothe end of his life. The development of Hobbes’ thought was considerably influenced by F. Bacon,Galileo, P. Gassendi, and R. Descartes. His principal works include the philosophical trilogy Decorpore (1655), De homine (1658), and De cive (1642), and Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, andPower of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651; Russian translation, 1936). Working along the same lines as Bacon, Hobbes “destroyed the theistic prejudices of Baconianmaterialism” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 2, p. 144). In his polemic with Descartes,Hobbes rejected the existence of a special thinking substance, arguing that a rational thing is amaterial entity. Hobbes created the first complete system of mechanistic materialism,corresponding to the character and demands of the natural science of his day. For Hobbes,geometry and mechanics are the ideal models for scientific thought in general. He conceives ofnature as the sum total of extended bodies differing from each other in magnitude, figure, position,and motion. Motion is interpreted mechanically; as movement from one point to another. Qualitiesperceived through the senses are regarded by Hobbes not as properties of things themselves butas forms of perception of things. Hobbes differentiated between extension, an inherent property ofbodies, and space, an image created by reason (a phantasm), as well as between the objectivelyreal movement of bodies and time, the subjective image of movement. He distinguished betweentwo methods of cognition—the logical deduction of rationalist “mechanics” and the induction ofempirical “physics.” In Hobbes’ view the state resulted from a contract between men, which put an end to thepregovernment natural condition of “war of all against all.” He adhered to the idea of the primordialequality of men. Individual citizens voluntarily limited their rights and liberty in favor of the state,whose task is to ensure peace and security. Hobbes exalted the role of the state, which he held tobe absolutely sovereign. On the question of the form of the state, Hobbes’ sympathies were on theside of monarchy. Defending the necessity of the submission of church to state, he considered itessential to preserve religion as an ideological weapon of state power for keeping the people incheck. Hobbes’ ethics stem from his view of “human nature” as unchanging and concupiscible. He believedthe basis of morality to be “natural law”—the striving for self-preservation and for the satisfaction ofneeds. Virtue is determined by the rational understanding of what facilitates or hinders theattainment of the good. Moral duty coincides with civic responsibilities arising out of the socialcontract. Hobbes’ teachings greatly influenced the later development of philosophy and social thought. WORKS Opera philosophica, quae latine scripsit …, vols. 1-5. Edited by W. Molesworth. London, 1839-45. The English Works, vols. 1-11. Edited by W. Molesworth. London, 1839-45. In Russian translation: Izbr. soch., vols. 1-2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1926. Izbr. proizv., vols. 1-2. Moscow, 1964. REFERENCES Bykhovskii, B. E. “Psikhofizicheskoe uchenie T. Gobbsa.” Vestnik Komakademii, 1928, no. 26(2). Cheskis, A. A. Tomas Gobbs. Moscow, 1929. Pod znamenem marksizma, 1938, no. 6. (Articles by B. E. Bykhovskii, L. German, M. Petrosova,and D. Bikhdriker.) Deborin, A. M. “Tomas Gobbs.” In his collection Ocherkipo istorii materializma 17-18 vv., Moscow-Leningrad, 1930. Golosov, V. F. Ocherkipo istorii angliiskogo materializma 17-18 vv. Krasnoiarsk, 1958. Tönnies, F. Th. Hobbes, der Mann und der Denker. Osterwieck, 1912. Polin, R. Politique et philosophic chez Thomas Hobbes. Paris, 1952. Peters, R. Hobbes. 1956. Hobbes Studies. Edited by K. C. Brown. Oxford, 1965. McNeilly, F. S. The Anatomy of Leviathan. New York-London, 1968. Gauthier, D. P. The Logic of Leviathan. Oxford, 1969. B. E. BYKHOVSKII